“To stay ahead of the malicious hackers, it’s imperative for the security experts to think exactly like them and then act opposite and outsmart them in their own game!”
In this pandemic era, every day thousands of malicious emails and websites are being unleashed by the cyber-criminals. In addition to this ordeal, organizations have to deal with endpoint and remote security as more employees are mandatorily Working From Home (WFM).
The ever-changing threat of cyberattacks and data breaches create new and unpredictable challenges for the cybersecurity experts. From the DDos attacks to the new variants of ransomware attacks, staying ahead in the cat and mouse game of cybersecurity is a challenging task.
To stay ahead in an evolving cyber threat landscape, security experts will have to assess the worst case scenarios and then act upon them. So, what is the worst case scenario in cybersecurity all about? Let’s find out…
Worst Case Scenarios
Worst case scenarios in terms of cyber security are real time incidents that springs up as a surprise and have a major effect on the security system in an organization. These worst case scenarios are to be simulated to have a realistic effect in your organization like a major cyber attack by hackers, network outage caused by cyber-terrorists and so on. Security experts defending the organization should be prepared with proper play books for these worst case scenarios at all point of time.
In essence, running worst case scenarios, both with your security operational teams and with your senior stakeholders, are key preparation steps to mitigate cyber threats. These cyber threats can be in the form cyber attacks, data breaches and hackers trying to exploit security vulnerabilities. The simulation of worst case scenarios are typically run in organizations with established incident management services.
Looking Out for Attackers
Organizations should never underestimate the importance of knowing their adversary. To stay one step ahead of the attackers, security teams should research and monitor the hackers round-the-clock to understand their tools and techniques. CISOs can deploy Blue teams to assess security and identify weaknesses within and outside their organization. These security teams should be ever ready to respond to worst case scenarios which are serious and real time incidents.
Looking out for attackers is crucial because when you know your adversary, you can start to understand their motivates. By this process you can also build security systems to safeguard the business models and disrupt the attackers. Hence, it’s imperative that security teams should have the right expertise, tools and competence to outsmart the attackers.
Self Assessment
It’s also crucial to understand the internal fault levels and security loopholes by finding out the vulnerabilities using hacking and surveillance tools. There are chances that certain working systems are incorrectly configured or not updated and are vulnerable to cyber attacks. This is what the malicious hackers are always looking out for.
Organizations should also look for simulative (white hat) hackers who are creative and should be continuously looking out for security gaps in their own systems. These “creative hackers” should be ready with innovative ideas on how malicious attackers could target them and their customers. In this way, organizations launching their security technologies and solutions can understand the threat perspective of their potential clients.
Flattening the Threats
It is increasingly clear that several CISOs need assistance in planning an effective cyber resilience strategy that includes multiple layers of defense. Staying ahead in an evolving cyber threat landscape will require some additional security technologies and solutions that is unique and trustworthy.
The unified security solutions from Cisco with its SecureX platform can unify visibility across the supplier’s security portfolio and user infrastructure. This can further enable automated security workflows, and incorporate managed threat-hunting capabilities. With remote working on the rise, CISOs can incorporate SecureX to achieve unified visibility across security products, swiftly identity and mitigate threats. SecureX enables enterprises to build on existing resources and advance the organization’s security maturity level. It also helps security teams to collaborate better across shared resources while delivering shared outcomes from SecOps that ITOps and NetOps.